View the birthplace of civilization: the Middle East, site of the world's first villages, towns and cities, from the hills of Turkey to the plains of Iraq. They were crucibles of invention and innovation-turbo-charging the pace of progress.
The French army stops the German advance at the battle of the Marne, while the Germans halt the Russians at Tannenberg on the eastern front. In France, the warring parties dig themselves in for 4 years in the trenches. Soldiers from the colonies come lend a hand to their colonizers and the war becomes global.
2/5 • Apocalypse: World War 1 • 2014 • History
War heroes, disaffected workers, a wealthy playwright and an enigmatic veteran named Adolf Hitler create a movement fuelled by mythology and racism.
1/10 • Hitler's Circle of Evil • 2017 • History
In the second episode, Mary Beard explores the physical world of the Roman Empire, and finds surprising parallels with our own world.
2/4 • Mary Beard's Ultimate Rome: Empire Without Limit • 2016 • History
The finale episode examines an ancient civilization unlike any other, that of the Indus Valley. Rather than imposing order through war or religion, it relied on the free flow of trade. The exchange of goods promoted wealth, co-operation and trust.
4 • First Civilizations • 2018 • History
Episode five tells how, after 1916 and the hell of the Somme and Verdun, the imperial powers redoubled their efforts to crush their enemies.
S01E05 • The Great War in Numbers • 2017 • History
Hendrik Poinar is a bit of a mystery man – as in, he likes to solve them. And he’s part time traveller – as in, he likes to dig up the past. Think Doctor Who meets Indiana Jones. Poinar is an evolutionary biologist - which means he studies the nature of how we humans got here and where we’re going. He happily admits his childhood dream was to travel the world and travel back in time. “No-one imagines that there’s actually something still hidden within a bone that’s been buried for a few thousand years or 100,000 years, let alone the possibility of resurrecting it or bringing it back to life,” says Poinar. “I mean, that’s sort of completely bizarre. It’s like a time machine, yeah, it’s a kid’s dream.” Secrets in the Bones follows Poinar on an epic journey to Italy, Germany, Britain, and across the Unites States. His mission: solve one of the greatest mysteries of science, a mystery that has eluded researchers for more than six centuries: unlock the secrets of the fourteenth century killer disease that caused the Black Death and wiped out more than 50 million people.
S53E12 • The Nature of Things • 2014 • History
